Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States. A reporter asks him about his philosophy on the wars and about race relations.
Reporter: Will you end the war in Iraq?
Obama: Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a brother to the suffering poor of Iraq and Afghanistan. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to my fellow leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in these wars is ours. The initiative to stop them must be ours.
Reporter: Some have accused advocates of stopping the war in Iraq as cutting and running. They claim that a significant troop withdrawal is neither safe, nor politically savvy. How do you answer these critics?
Obama: Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.
Reporter: There are fears that if we withdraw the troops too quickly, we may have to return. What are your feelings on that subject?
Obama: Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Reporter: Is ending the war the first priority of your administration?
Obama: Yes. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. The bombs in Iraq explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.
Reporter: Do you believe America's power in the world is waning?
Obama: I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.
Reporter: So the U.S. should not retaliate if attacked?
Obama: Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Reporter: With all of the problems in the world, where did your message of hope come from?
Obama: Being black in America means trying to smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death. It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of inferiority in their mental skies. It means having your legs cut off, and then being condemned for being a cripple. To be black in America is to hope against hope.
Reporter: Do you think your election will serve to change the way this country views racial issues?
Obama: Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. I have a dream that my two little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Reporter: America is a very divided place facing significant challenges. How will you bring us together?
Obama: Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
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